Bea Reviews Murder at the Book Group by Maggie King

Publisher: Pocket Books.
Series: A Book Group Mystery #1
Format Read:  print ARC & eGalley
Source: publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: December 30, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble | 
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

For fans of Anne Canadeo comes a fun and sassy cozy mystery in which one woman must solve the murder of a book group member and untangle a web of secrets hidden by her bookish cohorts.

Hazel Rose never dreamed that the murder mystery book group she and her friend Carlene started would stage a "real "murder.

Nevertheless, on the night when the normally composed Carlene seems unusually angry and rattled, during group discussion she dies after drinking cyanide-spiked tea. Despite a suicide note, Hazel is skeptical; Carlene never seemed suicidal--why else would she make all those plans for her future? Incidentally, Carlene was married to Hazel's ex-husband, and Hazel has always suspected there might be something more to her past than she let on.

How much does anyone really know about Carlene Arness? And did she die by her own hand or someone else's? Hazel begins a search for the truth that produces no shortage of motives, as she unearths a past that Carlene took great pains to hide. And most of those motives belong to the members of her very own book group...

Featuring memorable characters and a wicked sense of humor, "Murder at the Book Group" shows the darker side of a book club where reading isn't about pleasure--it's about payback.

Blog Tour Review & Giveaway of Shadow of Doubt by Nancy Cole Silverman

Publisher: Henery Press
Series: Carol Childs Mystery #1
Format Read: eGalley
Source: the author in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: December 2, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Barnes & Noble | 
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

When a top Hollywood Agent is found poisoned in the bathtub of her home, suspicion quickly turns to one of her two nieces. But Carol Childs, a reporter for a local talk radio station, doesn’t believe it. The suspect is her neighbor and friend, and also her primary source for insider industry news. After a media frenzy pits one niece against the other—and the body count starts to rise—Carol knows she must save her friend from being tried in the court of public opinion.

But even the most seasoned reporter can be surprised, and when a Hollywood psychic shows up in Carol’s studio one night and warns her there will be more deaths, things take an unexpected turn. Suddenly nobody is above suspicion. Carol must challenge both her friendship and the facts, and the only thing she knows for certain is that the killer is still out there. But the closer she gets to the truth, the more danger she’s in.

Blog Tour Review & Giveaway - Meow If It's Murder by T.C. LoTiempo

Publisher: Berkley
Series: Nick & Nora Mysteries #1
Format Read: PDF converted to Kindle
Source: Tour company in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: December 2, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble | 
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

First in a new series!

Nora Charles doesn’t believe in fate, even if she is a crime reporter who shares a name with a character from The Thin Man. In fact, she’s moving back to Cruz, California, to have a quieter life. But after finding an online magazine eager for material, and a stray cat named Nick with a talent for detection, Nora’s not just reporting crimes again. She’s uncovering them…

Back in her hometown, Nora reconnects with old friends and makes some new ones, like Nick, the charming feline who seems determined to be her cat. But not everything about Cruz is friendly. Writing for a local online magazine, Nora investigates the curious death of socialite Lola Grainger. Though it was deemed an accident, Nora suspects foul play. And it seems that her cat does too.

Apparently, Nick used to belong to a P.I. who disappeared while investigating Lola Grainger’s death. The coincidence is spooky, but not as spooky as the clues Nick spells out for her with Scrabble letters—clues that lead her down an increasingly dangerous path. Whether fate put her on this case or not, solving it will take all of Nora’s wits, and maybe a few of Nick’s nine lives.blah

Bea Reviews Organized for Homicide by Ritter Ames

Publisher: Gemma Halliday Publishing
Series: Organized Mysteries #2
Format Read: ebook
Source: from the author in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: September 8, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Kobo | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords*
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

USA TODAY bestselling series!


Organization expert Kate McKenzie is looking forward to her newest consignment: organize the cross-country move for a divorced father and his two children. But when a dead body turns up, Kate's carefully organized plans are thrown into chaos. Was it an accident? Or murder? Kate aims to find out and ends up falling more emotionally involved than she'd expected when the victim's teenaged daughter becomes the police's lead suspect. As a mother herself, she just can't let the girl not only lose a mother but possibly lose her freedom and future as well. While the police follow the chain of evidence, Kate follows her gut, leading her on a dangerous investigation that could result in more than one death if she doesn't watch her step.

Blog Tour Review And Giveaway of Fatal Brushstrokes by Sybil Johnson

Publisher: Henery Press
Series: Aurora Anderson Mystery #1
Format Read: egalley
Source: blog tour company in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: November 18, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords*
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

A dead body in her garden and a homicide detective on her doorstep…

Computer programmer and tole-painting enthusiast Aurora (Rory) Anderson doesn’t envision finding either when she steps outside to investigate the frenzied yipping coming from her own backyard. After all, she lives in Vista Beach, a quiet California beach community where violent crime is rare and murder even rarer.

Suspicion falls on Rory when the body buried in her flowerbed turns out to be someone she knows—her tole painting teacher, Hester Bouquet. Just two weekends before, Rory attended one of Hester’s weekend painting seminars, an unpleasant experience she vowed never to repeat. As evidence piles up against Rory, she embarks on a quest to identify the killer and clear her name. Can Rory unearth the truth before she encounters her own brush with death?

Giveaway & Review of Doghouse by L.A. Kornetsky

Publisher: Pocket Books
Series: Gin & Tonic #3
Format Read: paperback
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: July 22, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble | 
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

In the third novel in the "entertaining" (Library Journal) Gin and Tonic mystery series, the stakes are raised when Ginny Mallard and Teddy Tonica stumble on an underground dog fighting ring with bloody consequences.

Even though she's unlicensed as an investigator, the infamously nosy Ginny Mallard has begun to make a name for herself as an unofficial champion of the tongue-tied. When a mysterious stranger comes to her with landlord trouble, she convinces her bartender friend Teddy Tonica to help her once more. Soon, they realize they might have got themselves tied up in an underground dogfighting ring. With the help of Ginny's pet shar-pei puppy and Tonica's tabby cat, they have to figure out what's going on before someone else gets hurt. Will twelve legs really be better than four?

Blog Tour Review & Giveaway: Clam Wake by Mary Daheim

Genre: Mystery
Series: Bed and Breakfast #29
Publisher: William Morrow
Format Read: Hardcover
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: August 12, 2014
Number of Pages: 292
ISBN: 9780062317728
Purchase Links:  Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble |
 

Book Blurb from Tour Company:

Innkeeper and irrepressible sleuth Judith McMonigle Flynn and cousin Renie face off against a cold-blooded killer in a beach community in this delightfully charming Bed-and-Breakfast mystery from USA Today and New York Times bestselling author Mary Daheim. 

With the holidays gone and Hillside Manor almost empty, Innkeeper Judith McMonigle Flynn has a bad case of the blues. A housesitting stint at her aunt and uncle’s retirement home on Whoopee Island with cousin Renie seems like the ideal pick-me-up. Surrounded by retirees in the off-season sounds peaceful and pleasant--or so the duo thinks. But it isn’t long before a dead body pops up in their vicinity. Not surprising in an area full of older folks—until they learn it wasn’t a bad ticker that did in the victim, but a very sharp knife. With clouds of suspicion hovering over her and Renie, Judith reluctantly begins sleuthing—if only to prove they didn’t commit the crime.

But what she finds is puzzling. The victim reputedly didn’t have an enemy in the world--except for the killer. Digging for clams and answers, the cousins discover that retirement can be deadly—at least among the eclectic, eccentric residents of Obsession Shores.

Blog Tour Review of Bewitching Boots by Joyce and Jim Lavene And A Giveaway

Publisher: J. Lavene
Series: Renaissance Faire Mystery #7 (Amazon has it incorrectly marked as book 8)
Format Read: Kindle book
Source: the authors in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: 
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble 
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Jessie is thrilled when she finds Bill Warren, an old fashioned shoemaker, and he agrees to come back to Renaissance Village with her. She’s not so thrilled when claims to have elf magic, and he falls for Princess Isabelle. The dancing slippers Bill makes for Isabelle make him a suspect when the princess takes a leap from the castle terrace. Now, Jessie must find the lady or lord who helped the princess with her last dance before she loses her star attraction.

Blog Tour Review of A Biscuit, A Casket by Liz Mugavero

Publisher: Kensington
Series:Pawsitively Organic Mystery #2
Format Read: paperback 
Source: from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: April 1, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

The small town of Frog Ledge, Connecticut, has wholeheartedly embraced Kristan "Stan" Connor's new business--preparing quality organic treats for dogs and cats. On a healthy diet, the animals may live longer. . .but one local farmer won't be so lucky. As Halloween approaches, Stan is asked to cater a doggie costume party hosted by the Happy Cow Dairy Farm. Part of a local co-op, Happy Cow specializes in organic dairy products, and farmers Hal and Emmalee Hoffman have started opening up the farm for parties, offering a "haunted" corn maze as an added attraction.

When Hal's lifeless body is found in the maze, the police at first suspect his wife, but Stan soon learns the dairy farmer had plenty of enemies--from bitter family members to shady business associates. If Stan can't extract a kernel of truth from the labyrinth of lies, she may be the next one to buy the farm. . .

Blog Tour Review & Giveaway of Be Careful What You Witch For by Dawn Eastman

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Series: Family Fortune #2
Format Read: paperback
Source: the publisher in exchange for a honest review
Release Date: July 1, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble 
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Leaving a traumatic police career behind, Clyde Fortune has returned to her seemingly quiet hometown of Crystal Haven, Michigan. In spite of the psychic powers of its residents, there’s no telling what trouble is brewing in this burg…

The highlight of this year's fall festival in Crystal Haven is a bonfire with a witch’s cauldron resting over it. Clyde’s best friend, Diana, leads a ritual to divine the future, but it seems no one foresees that one of their own will drop dead—or that Diana will be a prime suspect.

Clyde already has her hands full with her eccentric family, runaway nephew, and burgeoning secret romance with a hunky homicide detective. But after another coven member is attacked, Clyde suspects there’s a witch hunt afoot and focuses her psychic and sleuthing skills to clear her friend’s name and catch a killer.

Bea Reviews Reunion With Death by Sheila Connolly

Publisher: Beyond the Page Publishing 
Format Read: eGalley
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: November 21, 2013
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Laura Shumway couldn’t say why she’d agreed to go on the class reunion trip to Italy. Maybe it was to take stock of her life, or maybe it was just to catch up with old friends, take in the sights, and relax in the beautiful Tuscan countryside. Either way, she knew she’d discover a lot on the trip, about both herself and her former classmates. What she didn’t expect to discover was the dead body of esteemed professor Anthony Gilbert.

Gilbert had had a long and illustrious career at the college. Now retired to Italy, he appeared as a surprise guest speaker at the women’s vacation villa, still disarmingly handsome, still charming, but not nearly so eminent in the eyes of Laura’s classmates. As a young professor all those years ago, Gilbert used his position and looks to seduce and then cast aside many of his young and impressionable students, and at least some of the women on this trip had been hurt by his false promises of love. The kind of hurt that runs deep and may have given any number of them a motive for murder.

Before the polizia or carabiniere get involved, Laura and a few trusted classmates set out among the vineyards and hills of the Italian Riviera to solve the murder on their own. With the help of some influential locals and good old-fashioned detective work, they’re soon led to the conclusion that one of their classmates might be a killer—and what started as a trip to see how far they’d all come may turn into a stark lesson about just how far one of them would go.

Bea Reviews Cat-Eye Witness by Patricia Fry

Publisher: Matilija Press
Series: Klepto Cat #2
Format Read: Kindle book
Source: the author in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: October 7, 2013
Buying Links: Amazon* | * affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Savannah and Aunt Margaret open the old Forster home to the Hammond Cat Alliance for a fundraiser to help rehabilitate the abused horses rescued months earlier from the catnappers. Before the afternoon is over, the collected funds go missing and someone is murdered in an upstairs bedroom.
Suspicion surrounds Iris, a local waitress and Savannah’s new best friend. The only witness to the murder is Rags, Savannah’s cat. With the assistance of a cat psychic and Rags’s good friend, Charlotte (the young girl with Downs), the cat helps to “paw” the killer…but not before an attempt is made on Rags’s life. The case is solved only after Rags comes face-to-face with the killer for the second time.
Detective Craig Sledge is new to this book, as is Damon, Iris’s errant son. Sledge finds this to be one of the muddiest cases he has ever worked, with inconsistent clues and no apparent motive. He’s constantly surprised, perplexed and impressed by the cat’s uncanny ability to come up with clues he has missed. His fascination with the attractive Iris Clampton also mystifies the detective.
In this story, one of the rescued horses goes into labor and there’s a night of high drama at the ole corral as veterinarians Savannah and Michael work to save the foal. This experience renews Savannah’s deep interest in horses and riding, which ultimately serves to help her bond with a very important surprise character who finds his way into her life and Michael’s just as they prepare to say their wedding vows.

While Rags is the animal star, he isn’t the only animal featured in this story. Layla is back in all of her tangerine beauty. And Rags makes friends with Buffy, a perky almost Himalayan and the inseparable duo, Walter, an all black cat and his sidekick, Lexie, a charming afghan mix. Savannah’s new ride, Peaches, also debuts in this story. An incident with this mare adds another dimension to Savannah’s and Michael’s relationship. Can he hold her with open arms?

Some say this is a love story with a mystery in the background. And it’s a story of family and friendship as newlyweds Margaret and Max continue to be a meaningful part of Savannah’s and Michael’s world.

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Bea Reviews Beyond Belief by Helen Smith

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Series: Emily Castle Mysteries #2
Format Read: Kindle book
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: January 28, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

When a famed psychic predicts a murder will occur at a seaside paranormal conference, budding sleuth Emily Castles is recruited as a “future crimes investigator” to stop the dastardly deed before it occurs. While tensions rise between believers in science, the supernatural, and the spiritual at the conference, Emily must use old-fashioned detective work to track the killer among a colorful cast of attendees which includes psychics, fortune-tellers, and religious cult members. Combining humor, horror, and British cream tea, Smith brings readers a satisfying and suspenseful new adventure featuring intrepid young sleuth Emily Castles.

Blog Tour Review: Murder is Academic by Lesley A Diehl

Publisher: Untreed Reads Publishing
Series: Laura Murphy Mystery #1
Format Read: Kindle Book
Source: the author in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: March 19, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Laura Murphy, psychology professor, thinks there's nothing she likes better than coffee and donuts on a summer morning until she says yes to dinner with a Canadian biker and finds herself and her date suspects in the murder of her college's president. Laura's friend, the detective assigned the case, asks her to help him find out who on the small upstate New York college campus may be a killer. The murder appears to be wrapped up in some unsavory happenings on the lake where Laura lives. A fish kill and raw sewage seeping into the water along with the apparent drowning suicide of a faculty member complicate the hunt for the killer. And then things become personal. The killer makes a threatening phone call to Laura. With a tornado bearing down on the area and the killer intent upon silencing her, Laura's sleuthing work may come too late to save her and her biker from a watery grave. This title is published by Lesley A. Diehl and is distributed worldwide by Untreed Reads.

Blog Tour Review & Giveaway of Murder at Honeychurch Hall by Hannah Dennison

Publisher: Minotaur Books
Series: Honeychurch Hall #1
Format Read: eGalley
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: May 13, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble 
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Kat Stanford is just days away from starting her dream antique business with her newly widowed mother Iris when she gets a huge shock. Iris has recklessly purchased a dilapidated carriage house at Honeychurch Hall, an isolated country estate located several hundred miles from London.

Yet it seems that Iris isn’t the only one with surprises at Honeychurch Hall. Behind the crumbling façade, the inhabitants of the stately mansion are a lively group of eccentrics to be sure—both upstairs and downstairs —and they all have more than their fair share of skeletons in the closet.

When the nanny goes missing, and Vera, the loyal housekeeper ends up dead in the grotto, suspicions abound. Throw in a feisty, octogenarian countess, a precocious seven year old who is obsessed with the famous fighter pilot called Biggles, and a treasure trove of antiques, and there is more than one motive for murder.

As Iris’s past comes back to haunt her, Kat realizes she hardly knows her mother at all. And when the bodies start piling up, it is up to Kat to unravel the tangled truth behind the murders at Honeychurch Hall.

Blog Tour Review & Giveaway of Organized for Murder by Ritter Ames

Publisher: Gemma Halliday Publishing

Series: Organized Mysteries #1

Format Read: Kindle book

Source:  from the author in exchange for an honest review

Release Date: February 21, 2014

Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Barnes & Noble Nook  | Barnes & Noble paperback | Smashwords

* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Organization expert Kate McKenzie is on track to make her new business, STACKED IN YOUR FAVOR, a hit in small-town Vermont. But when her first client, the wealthy Amelia Nethercutt, is found dead, the job takes a decidedly sinister turn.

Kate thought she and her family were making a fresh start in her husband's hometown, but she quickly learns that small towns can hold big secrets. When her first client is poisoned just after Kate leaves her mansion, she knows she's gotten off to a bad start. But things only get worse when the police find Kate's fingerprints on the murder weapon, suddenly putting her in the position of suspect number one. The stopwatch is ticking for Kate to prove she had nothing to do with the murder, and the odds are further stacked against her when items stolen from the Nethercutt mansion start showing up in the McKenzie home. Now, Kate must trust her methodical skills and expert eye to sort out who is trying to frame her and to find the real killer before she's organized right into a jail cell.

“Ritter writes like a seasoned veteran, and you will not believe how helpful these organizational tips are!”
- Gemma Halliday, New York Times Bestselling author

Bea Reviews It's Murder, My Son by Lauren Carr

Publisher: Acorn Book Services
Series: Mac Faraday #1
Format Read: Kindle book
Source: Amazon Lending Library
Release Date: June 23, 2010
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository*
* affiliate links; purchases made using these links results in a small commission for the blog.

Blurb from goodreads:

What started out as the worst day of Mac Faraday’s life would end up being a new beginning.

After a messy divorce hearing, the last person that Mac wanted to see was another lawyer. Yet, this lawyer wore the expression of a child bursting to tell his secret. This covert would reveal Mac as heir to undreamed of fortunes, and lead him to the birthplace of America’s Queen of Mystery and an investigation that will unfold like one of her famous mystery novels.

Soon after she moves to her new lakefront home in Spencer, Maryland, multi-millionaire Katrina Singleton learns that life in an exclusive community is not all good. For some unknown reason, a strange man calling himself “Pay Back” begins stalking her.

When Katrina is found strangled all evidence points to her terrorist, who is nowhere to be found. Three months later the file on her murder is still open with only vague speculations from the local police department when Mac Faraday, sole heir to his unknown birth mother’s home and fortune, moves into the estate next door. Little does he know as he drives up to Spencer Manor that he is driving into a closed gate community that is hiding more suspicious deaths than his DC workload as a homicide detective. With the help of his late mother’s journal, this retired cop puts all his detective skills to work to pick up where the local investigators have left off to follow the clues to Katrina’s killer.

Bea Reviews What's A Witch To Do? by Jennifer Harlow

Publisher: Midnight Ink
Series: A Midnight Magic Mystery #1
Format Read: eGalley
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: March 8, 2013
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission for purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

A suspenseful brew with a dash of passion.

High Priestess might sound like an ’80s hair band, but its Mona McGregor’s life. She runs the Midnight Magic shop in Goodnight, Virginia, and leads a large coven. She’s also raising two nieces and hasn’t been with a man for fifteen years…until a handsome doctor takes an interest in her. But Mona’s life really heats up when Adam Blue, a sexy werewolf, arrives at her door. Adam informs her that someone wants her dead and he is there to protect her. Hell’s bells! When a demon begins stalking her, Mona has to suspect her coven members, and even her family.

With two handsome men and a determined demon after her, Mona teams up with Adam to find out who really wants her dead . . . and who really wants her. 

Blog Tour Review & Giveaway of Playing With Fire by J.J. Cook

Publisher: Berkley
Series: Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade Mystery #2
Format Read: Paperback
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: January 7, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission for purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Fire Chief Stella Griffin is working to solve the mysterious death of her predecessor, Eric Gamlyn—who also haunts her cabin. Yet the more she learns, the more burning questions she must answer. Just as Stella thinks she has a lead from Deputy Chum, someone snuffs her hopes—and the lawman.

Adding fuel to the fire, Stella’s parents soon arrive—with her ex-boyfriend—hoping to persuade her to return to Chicago. Now Stella is torn between the life she left behind and uncovering what happened to her ghostly friend. But she’d better think fast or more than her investigation could go up in flames….

Cruisin' Thru the Cozies Reading Challenge 2014

It's only November, and just barely, but next year's challenges are already popping up. I did this one this year and enjoyed it so I'm signing up again for next year. The challenge is hosted by
Socrates' Book Reviews and runs from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014. It includes all book formats - print, ebook, and audio.

I'm going for Level 3 - Super Sleuth - Read 13 or more books.

Need more info? Ready to join in? Go  here.